Seven Tools For Sucess in Affiliate Marketing

When I first started fantasizing about affiliate marketing(just like other newbies), I thought to myself "I could make tons of money from this buisness and vacation at the Carribean, Venice, you name it." But I came crashing down back to earth when I realized affiliate marketing is not fast food. You must dress it, steam it, amd then cook it until it's ready to come off the stove. In other words you must be in it for the long haul. You need serious persistance determination and hard work to succeed. Let me show you seven tools for sucess in Affiliate Marketing

Focus On Topics You are Passionate About

Do not choose your topic about Affiliate Marketing soley because everybody is doing that. Instead focus on topics you are passionate about.Affiliate marketing, as a topic is quite competitive and unless you can come up with extraordinary content you will be blown off the search charts. Instead, Focus on topics you are passionate about. Brainstorm  on about 2-3 topics and then focus on one topic that you know you can run with.   It could be on Laptops, Forex, anything.


Get A Domain Name
You will most certainly need to get  a  domain name to host your affiliate site.  Make sure the domain name is something that is catchy - something that will not cause people to twist their brain cells.  Dont spend no more than 20 minutes choosing your domain name. Just make sure it bears relation to your topic area. You'd be better off starting with a registration package of one year as it frees you to spread your finances to other things. Most importtantly, if you decide, the domain sucks, you can go look for another one. One popular domain among most affiliate marketers is GoDaddy.com where you can get a .com domain at less than $10.00 a year.

Find A Good Host
You definitely need to find a good host to host your affiliate site. Most importantly they must have  reliable uptime. Meaning the host company should be able to keep your site up 24/7, absolutely crucial for any online business.. One hosting company on the lips of most affiliates is  HostGator.  They are described as one of the best around. However if you are contemplating Dedicated Hosting, where your site is the only site being hosted, LiquidWeb  is the name making the rounds. It may be a bit pricey but you will be paying for excellent support and uptime.

Subscribe to a Reliable Email Service

Email Marketing is one key method for driving traffic to your affiliate site. To accomplish this you will need to subscribe to a reliable email service that allows visitors to opt-in or sign up at your site to get  information such as updates on your product or site, newsletter, e.t.c by email. And the email service provider being mentioned by most affiliate marketers is Aweber. Besides managing your opt-in lists and email messages, Aweber also gives you the option to sign up visitors to subscribe to your blog via email as well as newsletters, and follow up emails on various topics.


Lots of Patience

Oh yes you are going to need to lots of patience if you want to succeed in affiliate marketing. Not only is  Patience the most important tool in affiliate marketing, it is also the cheapest. It wont cost you a dim eat all, and don't expect to see money any time soon.  Expect to grind this out for a while until the cash flow starts. Of course, the temptation to slap your affiliate site with tiles of banners is quite strong. No, resist this with all your might. Instead focus on useful content to give readers a reason to visit your site over and over again. And when the time comes for you to stick those ads, don just go for ads that pay the most money. They must be relevant to your topic..


 It does not make sense to get ads for ipads when your site is about dog food. Your readers have dog food on their minds not the look and feel of ipads. As a matter ask most veteran affiliate marketers and they'd tell you that you have a better chance of making money from text links. Just incorporate them in your articles and you have a much higer click rate and a better chance of making money from these clicks. The banners are a mere distraction. You only get impressions or maybe a a click here and there.

So if you are writing about a product, provide the link to the product as to where it can be purchased rather than just slapping a banner on your blog/site. Let's say you are writing about Super Affiliate Rosalind Gardner's award winning Super Affiliate Handbook or Affiliate Masters Course  you dont just slap a banner about these products on your blog. You provide  links to the products for people to click through and follow to the merchant sites like i've just illustrated.

Get a Voice

When I say get a voice I dont mean become a crooner like Luther Vandross (May he rest in peace). I mean you need to find your writing voice. Just be yourself and express yourself in your writing. Write the way you talk and your visitors will gravitate towards you.Write in language that they will understand and they will keep coming for more. Don't get too academic as your readers will think you are showing off. .. If you have a hard time coming up with topics to write about just jot them down in advance that way you have a writing schedule to work with. So that you have a set number of topics for each week instead of scratching your head trying to figure out what to write about.

So as you can see Affiliate Marketing is not a walk in the park. I have illustrated seven tools for success in Affiliate Marketing.  Affiliate Marketing is not instant gratification either. It takes months of hard work and determination to achieve financial success. If you keep your head up, you will laugh all the way to the bank.

Get Free Traffic from Forum Marketing

If you are looking to get free traffic from  forum marketing as a promotional strategy for your affiliate product, I'd say go for it. Many affiliate marketers are using forum marketing as part of their overall promotional strategy and are doing quite well as a matter of fact.  Not only do forums act as  a forum on which ideas can bee exchanged freely, not mention promote your product as well, , but forum marketing also allows marketers to identify interests and concerns of forum participants through problem solving. By problem solving, I mean answering questions that forum members might have concerning running an affiliate business.  However, there are few things you have to do in order to enjoy your forum  marketing experience.


Introduce Yourself to Everybody
As a new member of the forum, it makes sense to introduce yourself to everybody at your   forum community. Make sure you are sincere in your introduction. The membership can smell a fake a mile away. Tell them who you are and while you are here. Please DO NOT mention anything about business or do a sales pitch. The forum administrators frown on stuff like that and may throw you of the forum as a result.


Do Not Post Right Away
If you want to  see traffic immediately heading in your direction,  do not   post right away. You're still trying to familiarize yourself with everybody. The last thing you want to do is to start posting in threads that have been going on for days. Do that and you will be totally ignored Instead why don't you got through the forum archives and find out the most poplar topics and observe their etiquette before taking a dive with your first post.?


Answer Them to to the  Best of your Ability.
Anytime you find questions that fall withing your area of know how, answer them to the best of your ability.If the forum members find you to be helpful, that is when they start paying attention to you and then  traffic starts flowing to your end.


Don't Get Involved in Unnecessary Arguments
Please do not forget the reason why you are at the forum. You are there to help solve problems of other forum members and build a clientele in the process. So if somebody frames a question that you find offensive, don't join in the mud-slinging. Even if  it 's about Osama Bin Ladin's family just ignore it. Just make sure the other members know you are joking. But if it's a heated discussion,  walk out slowly. Don't get involved in unnecessary arguments.


Once Acknowledged, Start Marketing
Once your forum community acknowledges you as a helpful and useful member, you can now start marketing your product aggressively. Focus techniques that are likely to be of benefit to the community. You may want to include freebies/coupons. They love these alot at these forums. In some forums, you may need to get the forum moderator's permission, so keep that in mind while searching for a forum to join.


So as you can see,  you can get free traffic from forum marketing. It can be a very effective promotional strategy, and if done properly, could bring you instant traffic converting into prosperity. However,  don't make promoting your product your primary objective when joining a forum. You are there to solve problems of fellow affiliate marketers like yourself.  When they see that you are a great help then they will send you traffic to your site and, hopefully purchase your product.  If you are looking for a user-friendly forum where you get help and training about affiliate marketing,  Join Affilorama For Free

Promote Your Affiliate Products with Article Marketing

If you want to promote your affiliate products with Article Marketing, go ahead. Article Marketing is a very cheap low cost strategy of promoting affiliate products and converting your traffic into cash. Unlike other high profile advertising advertising, affiliate marketing doesn't cost a dime. All you have to do is write quality articles and submit them to as  many directories as possible and watch the traffic come flooding in. Let me show you how  to make article marketing work for you.

Write, Write, Write,

You need to write as much as possible to draw the traffic to your affiliate site. Of course the articles must be related to the product you are promoting. these articles could be in the form of product reviews, testimonials,, product endorsement, e.t.c . How to' articles are also useful as readers are looking for information that could change their lives.  This type of information is more likely to convince them to part with their cash. You would also do well to write headlines that can grab your readers attraction and cause them to take a closer look at your articles. Popular article directories such as articlesbase.com and ezinearticles.com are only to glad to accept your articles. On average it takes about three days to get your articles published.

Don't Forget Keyword Optimization

It's that phrase again. Don't forget keyword optimization. If you want the readers to access your articles, you need to find out which keywords they are using for their searches. By optimizing your search for these phrases, you will attract attention from search engines.  Through your keywords, people look for information on your article and click on the link to your site, buy your product, which in turn, earns you a commission for your hard work.  With the right keyword optimization,  your affiliate site gets a high ranking from the search engines, bringing targeted traffic to your affiliate site as well as your articles.

Get Them Interested in your articles
If you want your readers to read your articles, you need to get them interested in your articles. Your articles must contain enough information to pique their interest, but at the same time  leave some to the imagination of the readers when they click the link of your affiliate site in your resource box, located at the end of the article to learn more about your site and product. That should be enough to  compel them to buy your product.

Syndicate Your Articles

Some of you may bulk at this but allowing people to syndicate your articles could be a win win situation for you.  Make your articles available to other webmasters so long as they leave your articles and links intact. They in turn  publish your article for readers to read. As more readers read your articles, more traffic is driven to your affiliate site which in turn, converts to affiliate marketing profits.

So as you can see, it makes sense to promote your affiliate products with article marketing. It's a cheap way of promoting your affiliate products and drawing targerted traffic to your site. This targeted traffic is then converted into affiliate marketing profits. Once  write as many articles as possible and submit them to as many directories as possible. If you want to learn how to write articles and promote them I suggest  Entrepreneurs Guide To Article Marketing.

A few Ways to Survive and Succed in Affiliate Marketing

Most affiliate marketers are always on the look out for the one market that will bring home the most moolah(or cash). But if you think there is some magic formula to eternal prosperity, THINK AGAIN! it's  more complex than that! It takes ions of marketing coupled with good old fashioned hard work and persistence. But not to worry!  Those who came before us tried it and it worked perfectly for them. In fact it still continues to work today amongst thousands of affiliate marketers.  Let me share with you a few ways of how to survive and succeed  in affiliate marketing.

Use Web Pages to Promote Your Products

Use unique focused web pages to promote each of your products.  You'll be better off creating a separate page for each one of them. You could also try writing product reviews to give your readers an honest opinion and understanding of the products and what the products can do for their lives. To give your products more credibility, you could also throw in a few testimonials of people who have tried your products and can attest to their reliability But make sure you get the express permission of your customers to use their names and pictures on their website. Some people prefer to stay out of the limelight altogether.You can also create a separate page for writing articles highlighting the the benefits of the product you're promoting. In so doing, you will be pre-selling the product to them. Also by educating them about your product through your articles, you stand a better chance of getting higher conversions.

Offer Them Freebies

If you want to get your readers to buy your products you need to offer them freebies..  Instead of 'buy one free, get one free' it should be the other way round. The most popular freebie online is free reports. If possible, place at the very top of your page such that when your reader visits your page, it's the first thing he sees. And while you're at it, create sign up forms on your page as part of your email promotion of your product. This way, you inform or update your readers about your product by email. To accomplish this task you need autoresponders to broadcast your email messages to your readers. You can do this weekly or daily. Although I strongly suggest daily so they don't get the feeling they are being spammed. Don't just send messages just to get them to buy your content. Send them information that would be useful to them as well. You are more likely to get sales that way.

your email messages should also focus on  how your product can make life easier for your reader s. For those still undecided, make them understand that they will be missing alot if they don't purchase your product. But don't make it look like a sales pitch otherwise they will be turned off.  If you are looking for reliable autoresonders to help you you in your email campaign I suggest Aweber and GetResponse.

Get Targeted Traffic to Your Product

The last thing you want to do is someone coming to your site and leaving and never coming back. So you would do well to get targeted traffic to your product. One way to grab your readers interest in your product i is article marketing. You write articles supporting your product and submit them to article directories or e-zines. This way, you are bound to  draw readers interested in your product to your site.Try writing at least two articles a week of at least 300-600 words..  If you write regularly you could draw as many as 100 readers a day to your site,  which, in turn increases your chances of getting sales. Keep in mind that only one 1 in hundred are likely to buy your product. Meaning that if you can generate 1000 hits in one day you could make as much as 10 sales. This would definitely do you bank account a whole lot of good. If you want to learn how to write artilces and market them, I suggest Beginners Guide to Article Marketing   and Entrepreneurs Guide to Article Marketing.

So as you can see, there ae a few ways to survive and succeed in Affiliate Marketing. But  there is no magic bullet to success in this business. I takes hard work, and persistence to get those big paychecks that you always fantasize about. So roll up your sleeves and get to work!

How to Find a Lucrative Niche in Affiliate Marketing

You're contemplating starting out on what you hope to be a great ride in Affiliate Marketing. You are tired of the 9-5 grind and you want an activity that will give absolute financial freedom that you crave for. But again that small voice in your head asks you a simple question. "Have you chosen a niche yet?" and you're like "No Do I have to?"  I know this may sound strange, but not only do you need to find a niche, but you do need to find a lucrative niche in Affiliate Marketing. you need to find a segment that you re knowledgeable about and which you can market and make a lot of money from. Here is how to find a lucrative niche in affiliate marketing.

Find The Right Market

Don't just find the right market. Find a hungry  market. You need to find people with a ravenous enough interest to buy your product.   See whether there is a demand for your product, then start working on the supply. Next you start working on ideas for your market. Just set your brains loose and write a list of topics that immediately come to mind such as cars,  football cats, Real Estate, e.t.c.  . If you are having trouble getting your brains to work for you, the internet is loaded with sites that track the most popular searches. Sites such ask.com  AOL Search, and Yahoo Buzz comes to mind.

While doing your search, narrow down your choice of topics. Words such as dogs or cars are too broad and the competition in these two niches could be too stiff and you could be swallowed by the competition if you use these two topics. words such as "Rotweillers' or 'Ferrari's' will do you a lot of good. Then you find similar keywords using a keyword research tool. The Research tool then returns 100 of the most popular  words based on your query. For instance 'sports cars 'and grand prix events' could be suggested keyword events. If you want to get deeper with your research, you could click on any of the suggested keyword phrases to find more targeted words like 'grand prix race tracks. So the more targeted your research, the more options that are available to you. If you're looking for a reliable keyword research tool, I suggest Rapid Keyword.

Once you've selected your niche keywords, type them on  a spreadsheet.  Also, take  note of the numbers beside each  niche keyword. They indicate the number of times each keyword has been searched online. And it also  represents the demand for these keywords.

How to Monitor your Competition for your Niche Keywords

Just like any other industry, you need to learn how to monitor your competition for you niche keywords. Make sure your competition is limited as far as the keywords for your niche is concerned otherwise you are going to be swallowed. One way to go about this is to find out how many websites are targeting your keywords. To find out use a search engine such as google and enter in the search field one of your keyword phrases surrounded by quotation marks.  for instance, you type in a phrase like 'sports cars' and then hit 'enter' to get the search results for this phrase. Take special note of the number of websites that are optimized for your keyword phrase. The lower the number for the keyword the better your chances of showing up on the search results.

Continue entering keyword phrases for your niche until find keywords that will bring you prosperity. You'd be better off competing with web pages under 20000. This would help your chances of being ranked in Google. However if you really want to rank higher in the google charts, aim for websites under 5000. Make sure you write the names of keyword phrases which have little competition. Pay attention to the number of competing web pages for your keywords as well as the number of searches on your keywords according to your keyword research tool. Once you've identified with keywords with little competition,  you're ready to show off your product to your niche and start promoting it.

So this how to find a lucrative niche in affiliate marketing.  You need to find a niche you are knowledgeable about and  in which you have enough confidence to make a prosperous living . To do that you need to use keywords/phrases that are in high demand and offer little competition.  Follow these suggestions and you will be laughing all the way to the bank.

How to Promote Your Affiliate Products on Facebook

Facebook has become a huge goldmine for affiliate marketers. With a subscribership of over 500 million and still counting, the possibility of striking it rich on facebook is quite tantalizing. Even more important, your bottom line is going to shoot straight through the ceiling with this huge goldmine. With the right techniques and the right attitude you can conquer the facebook landscape. Let me show you a few tips on how to promote your affiliate products on facebook.

Create a Facebook Page

Yes, you need to create a facebook page for your affiliate products.  Come up with a business name to promote your affiliate products. Once you come up with the name, click on 'Create PAge' at the bottom of your screen on your facebook homepage. If you don't have a facebook account, then sign up for a profile account and the homepage for your affiliate business concurrently.  The neat thing about having a facebook  page is that anybody can view your page whether you are logged on or not. However, in order  for people to pay attention to your page, make sure the products you are promoting belong to the same niche . Let's say you're promoting  computers, make sure they include laptops, notebooks, ipads, e.t.c

Get Facebook Users to  Like Your Page

Get Facebook users to like your page.When facebook users 'like your page' it really increases the chances of your products being purchased. Anytime you post something new on your page wall, be it a blog post, or the link to an article, their newsfeed/wall is immediately updated. So the more 'likes you get for your affiliate page, the better for your affiliate products. 

Dont Just Post Affiliate Links On Your Page

Yes we know the ultimate aim is to make money through your affiliate links. But is shouldn't be that way.  The whole idea is to pre-sell the viewers of your wall first before pitching your products to them.  Other types of content you could use are affiliate marketing videos you may have discovered on YouTube, or internet marketing articles or blogs you may have found online. Woo then with some useful content first then they will buy your products. Dont just post affiliate links on your page.

So as you can see it is possible to promote affiliate products on facebook. Just follow the above steps properly and the cash will start flowing.

Looking to learn some more on how to promote affiliate products on facebook. Try the following products


Facebook Advertising Guide

How to Get Your Visitors to be Purchasers

You've been working on your affiliate marketing business for about 6 months to a year. So far the traffic has been quite steady. Except for one teeny problem. You're not making any money. But still, you say to yourself, "At least I'm getting decent traffic so it cant be that bad." Newsflash! Affiliate Marketing is about making sales. It's all about the moolah. Yes, the traffic is all good, but you need to get your visitors to be purchasers. You need to get your visitors to buy your products unless you don't mind them merely window shopping at your affiliate site. Remember, your affiliate site is your bread and butter, and it must be treated as such.  Here are a few ways on how to get your visitors to be purchasers.

Make Sure Your Products are Appropriate

 Yes, make sure your products are appropriate.The products you are promoting should be what your visitors are looking for. If you remember what I said in my last post, it does not make sense to be promoting iPhones  when your affiliate site/blog is about dog food. Your readers visit your affiliate site/blog with dog food on their mind not iPhones. Also, you need to to do some legwork, like find out what your readers search for online, and then choose products to promote  that match the content on your blog/ site.

Promote Only Reliable Products

Promote only reliable products. Unlike what your friends might have told you, affiliate marketing is not about plastering your blog/site with banners  of every product you lay your hands on. You must have  bought and tried/tested the products, or even if you haven't bought  the products, the products must have generated enough good press to make you sign up for their affiliate programs. Never ever sign up for affiliate programs whose products have generated bad press, regardless of the delicious commissions that they promise. Doing so, will kill your business as your readers will lose confidence and trust in your content and flee from your site like flies.

Build a List

You  need to build a list.This is another way of  getting your visitors to be purchasers. In building your list, you're gathering a specific category of people interested in your product and who may harbor plans of purchasing your product. But please, when you're sending your emails, don't just send promotional emails. include in you emails, tips that will be of help to your subscribers in their daily lives. In so doing you are able to, gain their trust and a grip of your niche as well.

Cloak Your Affiliate Links

Some of you are probably wondering" What does he mean by " Cloak Your Affiliate Links?' well, when I say 'Cloak Your Affiliate links, i suggest mask your affiliate link. Wanna know why? There are scammers prowling around the net pinching the commissions of hard-working affiliates like yourselves. you will need to protect those commissions if you want your business to prosper. And with Christmas around the corner, the incentive for these scammers to steal becomes ever so strong.   If you're looking for a product that will protect your affiliate commissions, I suggest ProCloaker 3.0. If you don't know how to cloak your affiliate links and would like to learn with the intention of  purchasing the  ProCloaker later, I recommend  Affiliate Cloak Magic.


So this how yo get your visitors to be purchasers.Affiliate Marketing is about making sales and traffic is only half the equation.  Your only motivation online is to ring the cash register.  Your content should help solve problems with the intention of getting the reader to purchase. Anything less, and you are in the wrong business.  So if you want to learn how to get your visitors to be purchasers and much more, Download Rosalind Gardner's Super Affiliate Handbook.

Roadmap to Affiliate Marketing Prosperity

Sure, Affiliate Marketing is a gold mine of cash.  Everybody wants to quit their day job and jump on this gravy train with visions of piling as much as cash as possible. Of course you have to get you readers to act in order to ring in the cash, be it a purchase or signing up to join a newsletter. But hang on a second. There are few ground rules that you need to follow. they are what I call "The Road Map to Affiliate Marketing Prosperity. If you so much as deviate from one of these steps, you are doomed to failure. Here We go!

This is where you get to play the role of mind reader. You must know what your readers need and anticipate those needs. The affiliate products  you promote must act as a solution to your readers problems  Let's say you do an affiliate site on dog food. the last thing you want to do is  insert affiliate links  on iPhone just because they give a high payout.. The affiliate links must be related to the content on your blog/site. Your readers must  come to your site with dog food in mind, not iPhones.

Gain Your Readers Trust
Readers are not as net ignorant as you might think.. They can recognize an affiliate link when they see it. Woe betide you if you pitch an  affiliate product to them that you don't believe in. If they so much as sniff that you are trying to make a quick buck off them, they will take off running at the speed of light and never come back. You need to understand that your readers are the lifeblood of your affiliate business.. They drive repeat traffic to your site, spread the word about your blog/site,  give you linkbacks and recommend your site as THE place for valuable content. When you give them the content that they seek, the bond between you and your readers grows stronger.

Be of Help
Don't view your affiliate links as mere cash cows. See them as a complement to your content.  The content must be of use, be of help, and provide valuable information to your reader. For instance how about writing a thorough review of the product you are promoting? give an honest opinion of the merits and demerits of your product. I'm sure they will come around to buying from you so long as you point your affiliate link in the right direction. You must understand that you must warm up to your readers with your content before they can even conceive the notion of purchasing your products.  Merely throwing up a Motley Crue of links about your favorite products and expecting them to click on them wont work. They will click the 'Next' button so fast it will make your head spin.

Be Honest

Be honest with your as to whose product you are promoting. It's absolutely crucial if you want to build a strong reader base. Failure to be straight with your readers could result in them bypassing your affiliate link and going straight to the merchant, thus cost you a huge commission. I'm sure you don't want that.

Choose Wisely

Try as many affiliate ad options as possible. Think about products  that will properly serve the needs of your readers. Also  try placing your ads in different places on your blog as you try to attract the attention of your readers. You can do this through inserting different graphics and text and then decide which is most effective for you. Continually rotate the ads until you arrive at the appropriate strategy.

Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

The most dangerous thing to try in Affiliate Marketing is putting all your hopes in one nest egg. This business can be very unpredictable in that affiliate programs could come and go at anytime. So, to spare you the humiliation of pulling your hair, try different affiliate programs. If one doesn't work for you, move on to the next one and the next one until you find affiliate programs that you are really comfortable with. The affiliate programs don't necessarily have to be run by huge affiliate networks. They could be small but high paying as well.

Your Content Must Last Forever

Your old content must  provide value even though it does not have front page prominence. If you're using blog platforms as such as blogger  select most popular article option. This option has the potential to create a constant flow of cash for you.

Don't Be in a Rush

When I got into Affiliate Marketing, some years ago, I thought I could be rich over night. Boy was I wrong! Becoming rich takes time. I'm sure if Bill Gates will echo the same sentiment. The good news is some programs offer residual income. Refer one customer and you get paid for the entire lifetime of that customer even if he does not come back to your site. So long as your old links still exist in your previous posts, they should make you money for the rest of your life. Make no mistake, affiliate marketing is not a 'get rich scheme' but it does provide possibilities for passive prosperity. If you're looking for  residual income directory I suggest residualincomefinder.com


Stay Fresh!
Keep abreast of the latest technological changes in your affiliate programs. New tools such as ad units, and new advertisers advertising new products are constantly being added to the food chain. Failure to keep up with these changes could leave you biting the dust. Like any other business you have to add value to your affiliate business. You cant afford to get complacent and lazy about your business.

Content Content Content
Content should be the engine of your affiliate business. Without content, your affiliate blog/site will be a ghost town. Content is the only reason why your  audience come in droves to  check your blog/site. Once you provide content that suits their needs, your monetizing strategies will work out. But like I said earlier,  your readers can sense when they are being shortchanged. So if you compromise on content just to please your merchant partners, your readers will take off running. And once that happen, you will end up leaving a lot of cash on the table.

So Affiliate Marketing is a gold mine alright. But you need to follow the roadmap to Affiliate Marketing Roadmap if you want to stay in the gold mine.  Just follow the rules and stay on course and you will be laughing all the way to the bank.

If you want to learn from the best, Download Rosalind Gardner's   Super Affiliate Handbook.  

How to Drive Traffic With Backlinks

One day an aspiring affiliate marketer purchases super affiliate Rosalind Gardner's best selling book   The Super Affiliate Handbook and while reading a reading on the section on how to draw traffic to your affiliate site you come across the term "backlinks". You're like "What Are baclinks?" Well, if you're going to drive traffic  make money  from promoting your affiliate sites through the content on your blog/site you'll have to get acquainted with this term. But be forewarned. Building backlinks is not an overnight flash.. Just like any other enterprise, it takes time to attain backlink glory.. With hardwork and diligence, the traffic,which , hopefully should convert into cash will start flowing to your blog/site.

So What are Backlinks?

Well, backlinks are links that are directed to your website/blog. They're usually links to websites whose content or theme is similar to that of your blog/site. Backlinks are absolutely crucial in that they determine how popular your blog/website is- the higher the number of backllinks you get, the more popular your blog/site. Even more important, search engines such as google give high marks to sites that have quality backlinks and consider these sites more relevant when conduction search queries. When you drive traffic to your blog/site through these backlinks, it gains more press.

Just merely getting quality inbound sites is not enough. Search engines calculate the relevance of your site to the keywords used to search your site  to ascertain the quality of those inbound links. for instance, let's say I have a site about race cars, and I receive a backlink from a blog/site about Ferraris, then that backlink would be more relevant than the backlink from a blog/ website about dog food.  Be forewarned though, if you're thinking of using illegal tactics to achieve inbound links search engines such as google are already ahead of you. No thanks to unscrupulous webmasters using hidden links or automatically generated pages to gather backlinks, search engines have made it doubly difficult for such unscrupulous activity to flourish.

So How do you build backlinks to your website?

Use Comments Section on Your Website/blog

The comments section will be the perfect place to build your backlinks. Every comment made about an rticle on your blog/website helps in building your backlinks. I Did you realize that every comment left on your block serves as a backlink? think about it. The more comments readers make about your article, the more backlinks you build fro your blog/site. It also helps even better when the reader's comments  includes keywords from your  blog/site which, in turn help your blog/site surge up the page rankings.  Make sure to include the most important keywords  in the titles of your articles  to to improve the quality of your  backlinks.

Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is also another effective way of getting backlinks for your blog/site. You find a blog  whose theme and content is similar to yours and then seek permission from the owner of the blog to guest blog on his blog(for want of a better term. Just leave the link at the end of each post and the backlinks and the traffic should start building up.

Article Marketing

If anybody tells you article marketing doesn't work don't listen to them. Article marketing is probably the easiest and cheapest way to get backlinks to your blog/site . Just write articles loaded with keywords similar to those on your blog/site, and submit them to as many article directories as you like. Most importantly, leave the name of your blog/site in the resource box for readers to link back to if you want traffic to head in your blog/site's direction. There are so many article directories out there you could submit your articles to. Article Directories such as ezines.com and articlesbase are quite popular among affiliate marketers.  However, if you want to save yourself the trouble of  submitting your articles manually you may want to consider using automated article submission programs like Article Demon to make the submission process that much faster. If you know next to nothing about article marketing I suggest you purchase the Beginner's Guide to Article Marketing. Once you get the hang of article marketing, you then buy the article demon.


So as you can see backlinks are quite essential to the popularity and health of your blog/sites. They are probably the most important part in your quest to fly up the search engine charts.  With a little bit of hard work and perseverance your blog/site will gets loads of traffic which should convert into cash for your cash register.


So if you want to learn about how to build backlinks and much more?

Download Rosalind Gardner's   Super Affiliate Handbook

Prosper as an Affiliate Marketer in These Tough Economic Times

As I'm sure you are aware, we're in probably the toughest economic downturn since the Depression. I'm sure some of you have all kinds of crazy thoughts swirling around your brains like "Are my profits going to be wiped away by  derivatives?" and so on. Not to worry, it wont get that far. You can prosper as an affiliate marketer in these tough  But some good news though. Turns out that affiliate marketers have defied the burning flames of the downturn. If anything, the affiliate marketing industry is growing quickly than most people imagined.   Youou can join the growing band of  crisis-immune affiliate marketers if you  apply the following tips.

Focus on Keywords

Keywords  are probably the most important factor for any online business in this crisis. You have to make ranking your keywords as high as possible your primary objective in these tough times. You must re Get started with less competitive(or multi worded) keywords and then work your way down to more popular keywords.Try aiming for top five listing, particularly on Google . Once you succeed you should have no problem ringing  your cash register. For effective keyword research I suggest Rapid Keyword.

Keep in Touch with Potential Customers

Keeping in touch with potential customers  is absolutely critical. Make use of your autoresponder  to send messages to your customers and establish relationships with them. In so doing, you build a huge contact list of these customers who should have subscribed to your newsletter on your affiliate website. You can achieve this goal through social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. These sites, in a way also act as autoresponders and list builders as they create opportunities for list building. But if you are looking for a traditional autoresponder, try GetResponse.

 Hit on Residual Income

Residual income will come in handy for you in these difficult times. Make one sale and you get paid as long as that customer continues to patronize your product. Now how is that for regular cash flow?  Even better it frees up time for you to go on vacation and other things that you otherwise never had time to do. If you have. When you get back, you can concentrate on promoting your product while the cash register continues to ring. I know of someone who is making residual income from his first sale that he made five years ago. Go figure. If you are looking for affiliate directories that have affiliate programs with residual incomes, I suggest affiliateseeking.com, and affiliateguides.com

Hook Up with the experts. 

If you're just getting started with  Affiliate Marketing,especially in this economic downturn, you need to hook up with the experts. You need to seek out those who've been there and done all that and learn how  they got started and what tactics they employed to be successful in their businesses.  I suggest you sign up for Alan Gardyne's Affiliate marketing newsletter on his associate programs.com forum. He is one of the heavyweights of the affiliate marketing industry. I really learnt a lot  from his newsletter. Another affiliate marketer you definitely want to learn from is Rosalind Gardner. Her best selling  book Super Affiliate Handbook  breaks it down in simple English how she got started and uses real life examples including her own affiliates sites as illustrations of how to succeed in affiliate marketing and much more.


So, it's possible to prosper as an affiliate marketer in these hard times. you just need to be smart by following the above suggestions.. Do that and you should be laughing all the way to the bank

How To Succeed in Affiliate Marketing without a website?

You've been reading about affiliate marketing and you're like 'yea I think I can do this.' But there is one hiccup! You dont have a website. Then you go ' oh oh!' I dont know the first thing about website design; Maybe this is not for me!' You can succeed in Affiliate Marketing without a website. Not to worry! you can make it as an non-website owning affiliate. Rember that  all you have to do as an affiliate marketer is to refer prospective customers to the merchant website and get paid commissions(lucrative ones) every time  the merchant makes a sale. Here are few suggestions as to how to succeed in affiliate marketing without a website.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing is rapidly becoming the most popular form of marketing a  product. And you dont need a website to do this. Just get together emails from your visitors and then email to them  information that is relevant to the products and affiliate programs and other solutions. The . Just send medium-sized text ads  and dont forget to include your affiliate link because it's the only means by which your customers can get to your merchant's website. Most important, the information that you send must beneficial to them. If you're looking for reliable email marketing services to subscribe to I suggest GetResponse, and Listwire. Click on the banner below.

Promote Your Affiliate Product offline
< Most people dont realize this but promoting your product offline is just as effective as promoting it online. You could promote your product on media such as brochures, classified ads and flyers. Classified ads tend to have better conversions compared to the other two as they are more targeted and  the response rate is a lot higher.

Create A Free e-Book
Writing a free e-book could be the best thing you could ever do to promote your affiliate product. So long as the content is of benefit to your readers, they'll keep coming back for more. Just make sure that the e-book's content is relevant to the affiliate product you are promoting. Most importantly, refer your readers to your merchant's website by adding your affiliate link to the site.


Write Ezine Articles
Writing ezine articles is another fantastic  method of promoting your affiliate product if you dont have a website. Just choose an article directory such as www.ezinearticles.com and write articles to support your affiliate product. The more articles you write, the more visitors you will get and hopefully they start buying your product which means commissions for you. Make sure 

Affiliate Marketing Forums 
Forums are a popular platform for affiliate marketers with no websites. With the affiliate marketing forums you you post comments  on issues relating to affiliate marketing. the whole idea is to help people with problems marketing their affiliate products. the more  help you provide with your resposnes, the more interested forum members will get in your product, and most likely, that interest will translate into sales for you too. Just make sure you post your affiliate link is  in your signature option.

Social Media
Social Media is exploding like a rash. Affiliate marketers are taking full advantage of the fast rise of Twitter Facebook. This will definitely work for soem of you who dont own webssites. Anytime you post articles at any of the article directories, you post the links on facebook and twitter. Once you do that, expect a lot of traffic to your articles.


To conclude, It's possible to succeed in Affiliate Marketing without a website. Just like your website- owning brethren, refer prospective customers to your merchant's website  using your affiliate link, using the above suggestions and you'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

Wanna Learn Affiliate Marketing from the best?


Download Rosalind Gardner's Super Affiliate Handbook

Never Too Late To Get Started in Affiliate Marketing

I was rummaging through a forum one day when I came upon a question by one of the forum members who happened to be an Affiliate Marketing Newbie. He basically  asked:"Is it too late to get started in affiliate marketing?" I'd say it's never too late to get started in affiliate marketing. Listen, no venture is ever too late, and affiliate marketing is no different. You just need to  put together with a solid plan and the cash should start rolling in..

I'm going to tell you a little story. Rosalind Gardner,  a super affiliate and author of the best selling Super Affiliate Handbook , was in a similar position.After working at a dead-end job as an air controller for 20 yrs she decided she had had enough. With retirement  not too far off, she realized there was no way she could survive retirement on her pension from her air controller job. so one day she quit her job and ventured into affiliate marketing where she's making a fairly comfortable living. All this came about because she  put together a solid plan and she didn't panic.

So as you can see from my little narrative, it's never too late to get  into affiliate marketing.  However, there are a few things you need to do to get started .

Find a Niche

Find a topic that you're passionate about. you're must be passionate about it to the point where it is running through your veins. It could be fishing, traveling, physical fitness, e.t.c. If you're not sure about of the top of your head, I suggest you sit down and brainstorm. Get a pen and paper and list every single topic or hobby that you like. Once you do that you can narrow it down to one or tow, maybe three hobbies that you'd like to get started. with. If you 're still not sure about which topic to choose, I suggest you download Ken Evoy's free Affiliate Free Masters Course and use its excellent advice to choose a niche that  interests you. You'd be better off printing it out because the material is quite comprehensive. You're planning your business so take your time

You need to do due diligence on your competitors. No, I'm not talking spying CIA style. I mean you need to find who your competitors are. Let's say you  want to do a site on Real Estate. You get into Google and find out who your competitors in Real Estate are.  Then you ask yourself? "Can I come up with a more interesting site than these guys? Can devise a new approach? new angle?" These are questions  you should consider. Whatever you decide could determine whether you  outrank your competitors in the Google sweepstakes or not. To check out who your competition is I  seochat's free online tool .

Pick a Profitable Niche

Not only should you pick a  niche but you should pick a profitable niche.  You need to pick a niche that will bring you great financial rewards.  This is where keyword research comes in. Type in keywords or phrases that internet users are typing into search engines. In this case  you're puting yourself in the shoes of  the users. the keywords/phrases in your website must match with theirs in other for them to access your website. In fact, you need to do this before you start building your website.  If you're looking for a tool that will help you in this regard I suggest Google's free adwords tool.  

Build an interesting website


Yes, build an interesting website with the view of solving people's problems. Yes, I know you need the money. however, you don't want to look like you're making a sales pitch. People are hungry for information, and the more you satisfy their hunger, the more they'd be willing to buy from you. Your site must be content-driven and key-word rich such that internet users can find them in the search engines. Most importantly, let your personality flow through the site. Have fun  writing the content. Remember  doing something that you love shouldn't be work.


So as you can see, it's not too late to get started in affiliate marketing. There is no age limit as far as affiliate marketing is concerned. You just need to follow the above steps and the cash will start rolling in.

Wanna learn how to succeed in affiliate marketing through real world examples?

Download Rosalind Gardner's Super Affiliate Handbook.

Why You Should Take Email Marketing Seriously?

If  you think there are no benefits in Email Marketing, think again. Email marketing of has a much longer reach than you could possibly realize. With the right focus and appropriate message, email marketing can help you get the right content to the right prospects and achieve high response rates. With a little luck, you could convert these same prospects into customers as well. Let me give you ten reasons why you should take email marketing seriously.

Global Touch

Borders are no problem as far as email marketing is concerned. Regardless of where you are, or where your prospects are on this planet, your targert email will reach them regardless of the distance.

Cheap Cost

Contrary to what people think, the cost of doing email marketing is quite cheap. Costs incurred in  activities ranging from thed esign of the emails to their receipt are 78% than the paper- designed direct mail version.  Also, unlike Direct mail,  you spend less time and resources.

Interactivity

Wite email marketing you can apply interactivity using graphics, music, videos, or anything that will help grab your prospect's attention.

Personal Bond

One great benefit of email marketing is the personal bond you create with your prospects. Make it a habit of saying hi  in your emails to your prospects and they will warm up to  your offer.

Gaugeable Results

You can  derive gaugeable results from click-through rate and  conversion rate, with the help of available tools.

Targeted Marketing

With the help of pre-packaged and custom-built lists you can target your porspects based on age, geography, income and other prerequisites.

24/7 Marketing

Even when you're out of the office or on vacation, your   campaigns will make their rounds 24/7.

Opt-in/Unsubscribe

The Opt-in/unsubscribe options in your email  campaigns help shortlist  the number of prospects, thus focusing on those genuinely interested in your products.

Faster Response

Unlike Direct mail, you get a much quicker response from your prospects in email marketing. Maximum response time is 1-3 days wherease with direct mail it's 7-12 days.

Email Marketing is Simple

Email Market is simple. You can do this anywhere from the comfort of your home without much resources. Just a PC and reliable internet connectivity should suffice.

Email Marketing is a great opprotunity to interact with customers and make huge profits as well. If done right, it could provide a comfortable nest egg  big enough to last you a life time.

How much traffic do I need to be prosperous in Affiliate Marketing?

One morning   I was wondering through the affiliate marketing forums and one forum member posed this interesting question " How much traffic do I need to make money as an affiliate marketer?" My first reaction was like" hmmm I wish I knew the answer to that."  The thing is if everybody knew the answer to this question, we'll  all be multi-billionaires wont we?. The solution to this question is not etched in stone.. there are so many factors to consider when calculating future profit  projections. Here are a few things for your consideration.

What  Am I Marketing?

Yes"What Am I Marketing". You need to consider the type of product you are promoting and whether there is a market. Let's say you decide to promote  super affiliate Rosalind Gardner's  best seller Super Affiliate Handbook.  First,   you need to decide whether the book is what aspiring marketers want to read. This is where background research comes in. you read reviews of those who have purchased and read the book. Once you decide that this is the book aspiring marketers want, you then decide how you are going to market the book. Am  I going to do this  through my blog? website, SEO? Forums?, these are questions you need to think about.

Am I using the right keywords?

The next question to consider while making those projections is "Am I using the Right keywords?" your keywords must be relevant enough for people to search your website and purchase your products assuming the content matches what you're selling. if your keywords bears no relation to your  affiliate site, it will be difficult for your customers to find you. Most importantly, use keywords that have very little competition. In other words, use keywords that the big boys are not using. In so doing, you put yourself at the top of the pack, and increase your chances of  profitability. Looking for a keyword research tool to help you solve your keyword problems? I suggest Traffic Travis.  

Traffic Quality Not Traffic Quantity

One Affiliate Marketer once put it best "Traffic to the online marketer is like air to the human. You need air to live. If you breath fresh air, clean air, you will enjoy a better quality of life and live longer than if you breathed polluted air."  This statement certainly applies to your affiliate site as well. You need to focus on the quality of your traffic....not its quantity. Just because you get a lot of traffic doesn't necessarily mean you have what they are looking It's okay  to target mothers with toys. But what type of mothers are you targeting? New mothers? mothers of teenage/adult children? These are questions you need to think about.

So your online prosperity has nothing whatsoever to do with their amount of traffic you're getting. Your prosperity depends on the product you are marketing, the appropriate keywords, and the quality of your traffic. If your promotional efforts are focused on the right people, you should be able to make your projections based on that strategy.

'Should I or Shouldn't I Promote Low- Priced Products?

One day as you're doing research online on which affiliate products to choose,   a strange question pops up in your head. the question says  'Should I or Shouldn't I Promote Low- Priced Products?'  Then you say to yourself' This important because it's the difference between prosperity paradise and poverty purgatory.' Here is my take on this situation.


If you want to promote  low-priced products, make sure your  website/blog traffic is humongous.  You can only succeed with low-priced products  if  you receive a lot of visitors and you've been in this Affiliate Marketing business long enough. Let's say, for arguments sake, you're promoting the best selling Super Affiliate Handbook which goes for, say,  $20 and  your commission cut is about 20%. This suggests that you are not going to get a whole lot out of this deal.  If you want to make a ton out of this arrangement you have to make  a lot of sales daily, which is a tall order , especially if you are just starting out. Y  You'd be lucky if you are able to break even with this arrangement.


Most  affiliate marketing observers suggest that you promote products that are hot with a solid price. Let's say you're selling a hot product which costs about $1000 and you sell 10 of these products  with the incentive of a 20% commission. From where I sit, I'd say you're sitting pretty. The import is that less traffic with huge sales will create for you a nice nest egg. That  does not mean you should go for high-priced products just to fleece your buyers. You want to sell them products that are good value for money and which will last them a life time.


However, promoting hot products with high price tags requires  a bit of effort and some blood and sweat. You have to offer your prospective buyers some freebies for them to cough up their cash for you. You could offer them a free report or a newsletter informing them of the latest products on your website. You can achieve this by  providing an opt-in form on your website for them to fill. Once you have accomplished that you then do follow ups by updating your subscribers on the latest content on your website. Only then will they consider buying your product. Speaking of freebies, how about downloading this free Special report on Affiliate Marketing?  Perfect for affiliate marketers who have hit a wall with their affiliate Marketing business.


So as you can see, it does not pay to promote low-priced products if you are just starting  out in Affiliate Marketing and your website/blog traffic is very small. To do so will land you in poverty hell. Your website must command serious traffic for you to even break even, let alone make a lot of sales on these products  Promote  high-priced products which give good value for money and you will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Get Acquainted with your Product

Ask most affiliate marketers about the secret behind their success and they’ll give you this simple slogan ‘GET ACQUAINTED WITH YOUR PRODUCT!” Yes, you need to have intimate knowledge of the product that you want your prospective customers to  buy. Not to mention the fact that you have to target your product to a specific segment of the online world.   Again, you have to know who this segment is and whether they really need your product. This requires some legwork to figure that out.

If I were a customer and I saw came across this product you are promoting online, the question I’d ask you right away is “Why in the world should I buy your product?” After all, there are so many online stores and emarkets jockeying for my money including you, I might add. In other words, you have to come up with a compelling enough reason that supersedes anything your other competitors are saying to sway me to buy your product. Dont just ask me to show you the money. You have to convince me as to why I should show you the money.


Learn Everything Possible About Your Product

The best way to make me buy your product is to learn everything possible about your product. Yes, you need to show me that you are an expert in your field. Just like super affiliate, Rosalind Gardner, who happens to be the author of the best selling Super Affiliate Handbook, you need to show me that what you’re telling me about your product is the gospel truth. You can accomplish this through product reviews where you tell me your experience in using this product and how you’ve benefited from it. This is a perfect way of establishing your credibility and showing me that you can be trusted. You can also enhance your credibility through useful tips with the view to get me to buy your product. These tips must bear some relation to the product you are promoting otherwise I am not going to buy your product.

Get To Know Your Customers

Now that you know your product like the back of your hand, there is one more hurdle you need to overcome. You need to know your customers.  You need to find about the people who you’re trying to sell your product too. How do you do this? By paying attention to information such as website statistics reports, search engine results, customer feedback, e.t.c. These pieces of information are very crucial as they tell you what their buying habits are like. Search engine results are probably the most important as they give you a rough idea of their product preferences. If you find they have a high preference for one particular product, you’d be better off focusing on that particular product. Their wish should be your command

Traffic Volume


Another method of gauging customer preference is pages with the highest traffic volume.  That tells how appealing your products are.  Once you figure out the page with the highest traffic volume, you concentrate on promoting that page. Again, their wish should be your command.

So, success in affiliate marketing is more than just inserting links and banners. You need to know your product and your audience. Once you’ve figured these two out, you should be laughing all the way to the bank

Wanna Learn from the Best Super Affiliate

Download Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook